In order to learn how to form Russian verbs here, you must already know the basic spelling rules of Russian and apply them after the rules discussed here are applied. If you are not sure of them, review them now before proceeding.

The General Nature of the Russian Verb

The Russian verb is always composed of two parts: (1) a stem and (2) a conjugational ending. Two basic types of stems and two types of endings determine the present-future form. Neither stems nor endings occur alone, but always in conjunction with one another.

Consonant Stems are those verb stems which end on a consonant. There are two significant types: 'wimpy' consonant stems and 'tough' consonant stems. (You'll see in the next section why they are wimpy or tough; for the time being, just remember them.)

There are two sets of endings used on Russian verbs to mark the present tense of imperfective verbs and the future tense of perfective verbs: those of the First or E-conjugation and those of the Second or И-Conjugation. The endings of the two conjugations are almost identical except for the initial vowel of all the endings. In the First Conjugation that vowel is e except in the 3rd person plural, where it is у (or ю). In the Second Conjugation the vowel is и everywhere except 3rd person plural where it is a (or я).

The Past Tense of a verb indicates that the action indicated by the verb occurred in the past. The Past Tense for both conjugations is formed by adding to the stem -л + gender marker, -o for neuter, -a for feminine, nothing for masculine, in the singular and -и in the plural. The past tense of сказа- "say, tell" is сказа-л-, as shown below.

The stem does not change if the past tense ending is added to a vowel stem; however, this ending doesn't like consonants and usually makes some adjustments to consonant stems which we will examine further along.

The Infinitive Endings

The Infinitive corresponds to verb phrases beginning with to in English, e. g. I want to read (Russian: я хочу читать). Whenever an auxiliary is used in Russian, the main verb must be an infinitive whether it is in English or not, e. g. I must read versus Russian я доджна читать. Here are the rules for forming the Russian infinitive.

-чь is used after fixed consonant stems on к or г. The consonant of the stem is then dropped.

мог-чь becomes мочь "can, may"
пек-чь becomes печь "to bake"

-ти is used after fixed-consonant stems which are end-accented. As you can see, т, д, з, п, б are regularly replaced by c before the -ть or -ти of the infinitive.

-еть is then added to the consonant stems on р and the e of the stem is realized, as in ум(е)р- : умереть "to die".

Elsewhere the infinitive ending is -ть: сказ-а- : сказать. Like the past tense ending -л, this ending, too, does not like consonants (too much like itself), and so changes them to suit its liking. We will review all those changes in the section on 'Rules of Combination'.

The Imperative Ending

The Imperative Mood is used in issuing a command or order, e. g. Give me that book! or Open the door!. Here are the rules for forming the Imperative Mood in Russian.

Nothing is added to (a) stems ending on й or (b) those whose accent always falls on the stem (fixed stem accent). In fact, if a stem with fixed stem accent ends on a vowel, the vowel is removed. (Keep in mind, however, if the preceding consonant is a soft one, you have to insert a soft sign (ь) to mark it when no vowel follows.)

-и is added to stems with movable accent and those with accent fixed on the endings. A good way to check for both of these types is 1st person singular; i.e. if the stem has end accent or movable accent the 1st person singular ending will always be accented.

You should now know all the forms of the Russian verb except those of the participles. They will come later. Next we have to look at certain changes which take place in the stems when endings are added to them. Russian sounds are unsociable: they don't like sounds like themselves. Consonants get along with vowels and vowels with consonants, but consonants don't like other consonants and vowels don't like other vowels. In the next section we will see what happens when they end up next to each other in a verb form. Just click the right arrow below. Oh, yes, one other thingthere are a few exceptions.